Sumac Spice-Crusted Chicken and Green Bean Salad with Spiced Yogurt Dressing

This Sumac Spice-Crusted Chicken and Green Bean Salad with Spiced Yogurt Dressing is a great salad that you can make in the morning. 

Sumac is a red spice is harvested from shrubs in the Middle East and traditionally sun-dried. It is tart, acidic and tastes of lemons. This dark red powdered berry had a nutty texture with a tart, sour lemon with a slightly fermented taste. Sumac can be used as you would lemon and salt for chicken, fish, vegetables or hummus.

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White Bean, Hearts of Palm & Artichoke Salad

This White Bean, Hearts of Palm & Artichoke Salad is something I threw together using some of my pantry items. It turned out to be a great combination of things. Use this dressing recipe and with different kinds of beans, cheeses and nuts from your pantry to make your own version. This lasted a few days in the fridge and was great for lunch.

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Butternut Squash & Leek Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a baked French dessert of fruit, traditionally cherries, arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick flan-like batter. This dessert originated in the Limousin area of France, where batters play an important role. This Butternut Squash and Leek Clafoutis is a savory version. It's simple to make and my husband absolutely loved it and wants me to keep the recipe handy. The problem with me, (and I have many problems!) is that I make so many new things that I forget to make some of our old favorites. 

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Baked Potatoes with Boursin & Leeks

In this recipe for Baked Potatoes with Boursin & Leeks, the potato is scooped out, mixed with Boursin, cheddar and leeks and then broiled until the cheese is golden and bubbling. Serve it with a mixed green salad.

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Cheesy Scalloped Zucchini

I know many of you have planted zucchini in your gardens. This Cheesy Scalloped Zucchini is one way you might get your kids to eat some vegetables! It can be made ahead and baked before serving.

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Tuscan Portobello Stew

This Tuscan Portobello Stew is vegetarian, but you'll be hard-pressed to find anyone, meat-eater or otherwise, who doesn't love it. Did you know the portobello is really a brown crimini mushroom? Once the little crimini grows up to be about 4" - 6" in diameter, it becomes a portobello. The portobello in Northern Italy is called "cappellone" which means "big hat". This stew is wonderfully rich, but only has about 310 calories per serving. I suppose adding the big hunk of crusty bread might take it over the edge! The recipe calls of dried herbs, but I used fresh.

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Aunt Bambi’s Chile Colorado

My friend Chris, whose family calls her “Aunt Bambi” (there must be an interesting story there!), had us for a socially distant dinner in her backyard and made this incredible Chile Colorado. By the way, Colorado has nothing to do with the state of Colorado. Colorado is of Spanish origin, meaning "colored red.” Chile Colorado (sometimes spelled Chili Colorado) is a Mexican dish featuring a red sauce and tender pieces of beef. There is a small amount of chocolate in it and is typically eaten with beans, rice, and tortillas.

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Antipasto Baked Smothered Chicken

Antipasto is the traditional first course of a formal Italian meal. Typical ingredients of a traditional antipasto include cured meats, olives, pepperoncini, mushrooms, anchovies, artichoke hearts, various cheeses, pickled meats, and vegetables in oil or vinegar. This Antipasto Baked Smothered Chicken uses that first course to smother some chicken breasts. The outcome is wonderfully, briny and delicious.

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Instant Pot Lasagna

I made this Instant Pot Lasagna using my 7” Fat Daddio's Round Removal Bottom Cheesecake Pan. I have to say, it was the best lasagna I have ever made. I have also included the oven instructions if you do not have an Instant Pot / Pressure Cooker. I love the way it looks and it's so much easier to serve sliced into pie-shaped wedges.

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Shrimp with Mustard

There are a few cookbooks that were very influential to me in my early days of cooking. One of them was Wolfgang Puck’s French Cooking for the American Kitchen, published in 1981. The Austrian born Wolfgang wanted to make French cooking accessible to Americans, like Julia.

After cooking my way through most of the book one summer, I fondly remember the first time I made his Shrimp with Mustard. It was in the early eighties and my now-husband, Eric, was there with me deveining shrimp in my parent’s kitchen. I had just had foot surgery and had to sit on the counter with my feet elevated while they throbbed. Why was I throwing a FORMAL dinner party after foot surgery? I have no idea. Maybe my father, the retired foot surgeon can answer that question!

It is typically French, in that, it includes cream and butter. I have catered hundreds of parties, events, dinners, etcetera and I have been literally held hostage in people’s kitchens with hosts and guests demanding that I reveal the recipe for this delectable Shrimp with Mustard appetizer. I must say, it’s divine! Why? - because it contains CREAM and BUTTER!!!

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